News:

"There is a terrible desperation to the increasingly pathetic rationalizations from the climate denial camp. This comes as no surprise if you take the long view; every single undone paradigm in history has died kicking and screaming, and our current petroleum paradigm 🐉🦕🦖 is no different. The trick here is trying to figure out how we all make it to the new ⚡ paradigm without dying ☠️ right along with the old one, kicking, screaming or otherwise." - William Rivers Pitt

Topic Summary

Posted by: AGelbert

Agelbert NOTE: The following is a screenshot of December 5, 2018's global marine traffic. This relatively normal activity for today is a valuable reference for all of us. Why? Because we can compare it with activity in the future.

IMHO, Capitalist economies will first evidence imminent collapse by the absence of marine traffic.

I call this the Marine Traffic Collapse Meter. I will post a screenshot now and then, but anybody else is welcome to do so. I will also post marine related stuff here that I find of interest.

Thank you Az. Glad you liked it. Here's another one I recently read that is poignant and quite moving.

Sometimes There is No Solution

December 2, 2018 by CW4 MICHAEL W. CARR

Photo: ffuries (Mike) via Wreckchasing Message Board

By Michael Carr – He looked in through the C-130’s rear cargo doors. He could see all the way up to the cockpit landing, and just stared as he and his dive buddy bobbed in the large ocean swells.

Looking below he saw the immense depths of the ocean, everywhere the endless ocean. But in front of him was this massive C-130 aircraft, bobbing in the large ocean swells. Inside the aircraft he could see a tangle of webbing, lines, and debris.

“S h i t,” he said to himself as he sucked air through his SCUBA regulator. He looked over at his buddy, who looked back at him.

He was in charge of this rescue, and so he knew his buddy would follow his lead.

“The Coast Guard does not do body recovery,” he remembered. But that had not stopped or prevented them from recovering bodies previously.

“Yea, we don’t do body recovery, but if we don’t, who will?” he often said. It’s easy to make policy and doctrinal statements when you sit in an office, but the real world is different. You do what you have to do, or what you know you should do, not always what someone dreamed up or put in an instruction.

Large 8-12 foot swells, generated by gale force winds swept over the floating aircraft. At a depth of 20 feet the divers were being raised up and down, making it difficult to get a good view into the aircraft’s belly.

They were about 50 feet away from the C-130’s tail, which cast a shadow over them.

“I really don’t want that tail coming down on us,” he thought. They swam down deeper, to around 40 feet where they could look up at the aircraft. They kept looking, but no solutions for entering and recovering the flight crew came into his mind.

They swam around to the nose of the aircraft, but could not see inside. Each time they attempted to get close a large swell would raise up the aircraft or them, preventing a good straight view inside.

Before the C-130 ditched yesterday her crew had dumped all the cargo and fuel, so the plane was floating because of the air inside the empty fuel tanks. How long it would continue to float was a mystery.

“We want you to go out and see if you can get inside the aircraft and recover the bodies from the flight deck,” were his orders. Over the past day a fierce November winter gale had passed over this stretch of ocean, making entry into the C-130 dubious.

“What if we swim inside through the open ramp, and then get caught in all the webbing and debris, and then the plane decides to sink,” he thought. “I am not even sure we can swim inside without being smashed up.”

As he and his buddy swam around the aircraft, sucking air from their twin SCUBA tanks, he knew he had to make a decision. Do we try to enter the plane or not? And if we can get inside and up to the flight deck, how are we going to pull 4, or maybe 5 bodies out?

It would be easy to just say, “Nope, can’t do this,” but you cannot just say no because a situation looks difficult or makes you feel really uncomfortable.

“Is there a realistic, viable option,” he said to himself. It’s difficult to think rationally and logically when you are bouncing in the ocean, 180 miles from land, in post gale conditions.

He imagined what it must have been like for the C-130s crew as they ditched. He had flown many missions on Coast Guard C-130s and it was disconcerting seeing one floating in the ocean. Just not right.

After making a circle around the aircraft, looking at her from the surface and from 40 feet below, and thinking about every conceivable option he came to the conclusion they could just not go inside.

“What if we get inside and the damn plane starts to sink. If we had lift bags on her, and if the seas were calm, then maybe, but this is a mess. There is no plan B if we get caught inside the plane,” he conjectured.

“We can’t do this,” he finally said to himself.

After bobbing in the swells for a few more minutes, he signaled his buddy NO GO, and gave thumbs up to surface. On the surface a Coast Guard helicopter recovered them, and once inside the helicopter he was patched through to the Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center.

“We can’t get inside the plane, it’s too rough, and there is too much debris inside,” he said. He felt relieved, but personally disappointed. He wanted mission success, and a solution. But today there was no solution.

Their helicopter headed back to Air Station Elizabeth City NC, and a few hours later the C-130 sank, taking her flight crew with her.

Posted by: AGelbert

Agelbert NOTE: This is nearly three years old but I had not seen it. The parachute system this aircraft had is a called a BRS (Ballistic Recovery System). All ultralights have them and many light aircraft, such as the one in this video, can have them too. They shoot out like a mortar when you pull a string to fire them. As you will see, they work GREAT!

Pilot Safe After Ditching Aircraft in Pacific Ocean – Amazing Video

January 27, 2015 by Mike Schuler

This screenshot from the video below shows the aircraft chute deploying. U.S. Coast Guard image

The pilot of a single engine airplane is lucky to be alive after he was forced to ditch his aircraft in the Pacific Ocean 200 miles northeast of Maui on Sunday, January 25, 2015.

At 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, the pilot contacted the Hawaii National Guard and reported that his aircraft had approximately three hours of fuel remaining during a flight from Tracy, California to Kahului Maui and he would be ditching 230 miles north east of Maui. The pilot told rescue crews that he had a life jacket, life raft and his aircraft was equipped with a parachute system.

A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane from Air Station Barbers Point was able to rendezvous with the aircraft and caught the following amazing video of the ditching process.

At approximately 4:44 p.m. the pilot was able to deploy the aircraft’s airframe parachute system and safely exit the aircraft into a life raft, seemingly without a hitch.

The kilogram was the last unit of measure connected to a real measurable unit. But as of the 16th of November, we lost the kilogram to the uncertainties of our never-resting, always moving universe. The kilogram just isn’t what it used to be.

The New Kilogram Isn’t What It Used To Be

The last measurement linked to a solid state is gone. The new kilogram was redefined at the 26th General Conference of Weights and Measures (26e Conférence générale des poids et mesures) that took place near Paris, at the Congrès de Versailles. But, concretely, what does it mean?

This meeting of scientists gathered experts who agreed to recalibrate the kilogram on global scales. The reason is to meet a higher and more precise universal value of the international unit. As of May 2019, the new system is on a quantum mathematic equation. Dudes, it’s going to be gnarly!

But why mess with something so solid? Because our solids are not that solid after all. While it might be second nature to most quantum theorists and philosophers to consider this, most of us never contemplate that solid-like gases are always changing, albeit slowly. In our never-resting, ever-changing universe, this is the first the kilogram has changed its value since it was established in 1875.

How Did The Kilogram Come About?

In the beginning, there was water and someone observing it. During the French revolution, scientists sought to find the most natural unit as universal as possible, according to Pierre Cladé, a physician at the French CNRS (in French), via France 24 (in French).

The solution they found was simple: A kilogram would be the same as a liter of water. But this simple approach wasn’t very practical nor precise. Temperatures alter the mass of a liquid and can influence its weight.

In order to be as precise as possible, scientists devised a platinum cylinder of 4 cm (~1.574803″) in diameter by 4 cm in height. This cylinder became the new kilogram in 1875.

The funny thing is that it became the international measurement for a liter of water 💧 soon after. Although this unit, called the “grand K,” is held under tight security in Sèvres, France, and under no less than three glass bells, all of this hasn’t been enough to keep the weight of the cylinder steady.

Now things are taking on a quantum turn of events. The unforeseen problem is that even a pretty stable metal as platinum changes over time. Molecular interactions and temperatures differences even under three glass bells will affect solids over time (even if not that much over 100 years). Every 40 years, metrologs meet to carefully weigh the platinum cylinder. But no matter how careful they are, the weight is affected. The kilogram fluctuated every time it was touched, despite scientists’ best intentions. Although this might seem funny on the surface, consider the price of saffron or other highly prized chemicals or solids — millions of dollars are at stake!

Why not recalculate the weight every time it is cleaned and checked? Scientists decided it would be better to change the value of its weight into a precise equation, if possible. The “universal” measurement would have to be a quantum equation weighed against the Planck constant. Planck is the Alpha and Omega of quantum science.

What’s Next For The New Kilogram?

Next, all global scales will have to be readjusted for the new kilogram measurement. I’m sure all can appreciate the mental gymnastics this means for our mobility world. How heavy is a car really? But joking apart, I could go on and on about this fascinating topic — nothing is the way it really seems. (You can turn on your TV and watch the news for the same effect.)

In the meantime, it’s about time to remember that: “Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.”—The Kybalion. Now go and neutralize that one.

In any case, the kilogram is dead. Long live the new Kilogram! 🧐 🕵️ 👨‍🔬 🔬

Posted by: AGelbert

Caught on Video: HM Coastguard Rescues Fishermen from Capsized Vessel in English Channel

November 8, 2018 by Mike Schuler

Four fisherman have been rescued after their fishing vessel capsized in the English Channel approximately 14 nautical miles south of Eastbourne, England on Thursday.

The HM Coastguard successfully winched two of the fisherman from the overturned hull of the fishing vessel, while a nearby ship rescued two others from the water.

The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency reported receiving a call just before 4 p.m. local time from a merchant vessel reporting that they could see a capsized fishing vessel with two people sitting on the hull and two others in the water. HM Coastguard also received a distress alert transmitted from the fishing vessel’s EPIRB.

An HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Lydd was immediately launched, as well as the Eastbourne and Newhaven RNLI All Weather Lifeboats.

A Mayday relay broadcast was also issued by HM Coastguard asking all vessels in the area to assist if they were nearby. Many vessels responded to the broadcast and also made their way to the scene.

The ship that reported the incident was able to pick up the two people from the water, while the SAR helicopter successfully rescued the two people from the hull in a dramatic rescue captured on video.

The rescued fisherman have been taken to Dover Coastguard Station where they met with paramedics, but they have not been hospitalized.

“This was a very successful outcome to what could have been a tragic one,” said Kaimes Beasley, Duty Controller for HM Coastguard. “There was a huge effort to rescue these four men in near gale force conditions in the English Channel. Thankfully, all four fishermen have been picked up and despite being cold and wet are otherwise safe and well.”

As a result of the incident, the Coastguard is recommending to anyone venturing out to sea to ensure your vessel is equipped with an EPIRB, among other safety equipment.

Posted by: AGelbert

By Michael Carr – He could not take it anymore. It was all too much. The constant gale force winds, the paranoid Master, the degenerate 2ndmate, the dysfunctional cook, and an engineer who hid from everyone. All were destroying his mental health.

A week ago, or maybe longer, he could not remember now, he had e-mailed his wife from the tug’s bridge computer and asked her to call the company office in Seattle.

“Ask for Janice and get me off of here…as soon as can. Please,” he wrote. He felt guilty asking his wife to intervene, but he also felt his inner strength and resolve rapidly draining away. He just did not have the fortitude to engage the home office.

Also, he thought, he did not want the tug’s skipper and crew to know he was begging to get off. He was worn out, mentally and physically. He had endured hardship before, but this was different. This time it was insidious, persistent and had relentlessly torn him down since he had embarked on the boat a month earlier in Nome, Alaska.

Prudhoe Bay* was a 147-ton, 90-foot tug built originally for work in Prudhoe Bay Alaska. But now she was hauling barges loaded with containers from King Cove in the Aleutian Islands, up the Yukon River, and to Nome. Built for “coastwise” trade, with a flat bottom and 10 ft. draft, the Prudhoe Bay was now being used to drag barges across the open expanse of the Bering Sea.

From King Cove to Nome is 800 miles of open and exposed ocean. Every low pressure system coming off Siberia screams across the Bering Sea, bringing days and weeks of constant gales, clouds, rain, and miserable depressing weather. There are few places on earth as gray and demoralizing as the Bering Sea. It can make you lose your mind. There is no escape, no hope that by the end of the day – or week or month – conditions will have changed.

When Prudhoe Bay departed King Cove a month ago, or maybe it was more than a month, it’s too difficult to add up the endless days, they were towing a 400-foot barge loaded with containers stacked four high. A huge tow by any standard, with so much windage. It was almost comical to see the 90-foot Prudhoe Bay towing this monster of a barge.

“They bid on jobs to keep their tugs busy and making money. If they thought we could tow a f u c k i n g iceberg to the lower 48, they would bid the job.”

“Great,” he thought. “What a mess. This is not what the Personnel Office told me I would be doing. I am so, so, so stupid.”

When Prudhoe Bay departed King Cove their first challenge was getting through False Pass, the safest and most protected passage through the Aleutians. False Pass comes by its name because it does not appear to actually provide a passage through the Aleutian Islands, but it does.

In some ways the passage is awesome in its beauty, with high mountains and rocky crags lining the passage, which is a mere few hundred yards wide in places. Rain, fog and clouds obscure the mountaintops, and winds roll down the cliffs. If you were on a cruise ship it might be impressive and elicit “oohs” and “ahhs”. But on a 90 ft. underpowered tug pulling an uncooperative and mercurial 400-foot loaded barge it is just unceasing stress and concern.

Every mariner who tows knows about catenary. Catenary is that dip in the tow cable, which prevents the cable from jerking and breaking. Catenary allows a tow to be “in-step” with the towing vessel, ensuring both the tug and tow rise and fall in a seaway together. In deep open water, where the ocean bottom is miles away, the depth of the catenary is of little concern. But in shallow water, if the tow cable dips to far below the surface it will drag on bottom. This is dangerous because a tow cable dragging on the bottom will stop a tug and allow the tow to overrun it, causing the tug to capsize and sink.

Unlike the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea is shallow, in some places as shallow as 60 ft. Constant attention to a tow cable’s catenary is essential, and because of shifting winds and erratic seas, the length of a tow cable must be adjusted often. Sometimes several times during a 4-hour watch.

On the Prudhoe Bay, the tow cable is adjusted at the towing winch on the stern. Since only one person is on watch at a time, the mate must leave the pilothouse, with the tug on autopilot, and walk to the stern to engage the towing winch to let out or pull in tow cable.

How much to pull in or let out? It’s an educated guess. Let some out, pull some in, then go back to the pilothouse. Check your speed over the ground, check the depth, check the tow. Is the barge riding smoothly behind you, or is it yawing or pounding into the waves? Is the tow cable jerking or is it staying in the water? Tough enough during the day to accomplish this task, almost impossible at night. This task is always a challenge when you are rested, but after weeks of towing in gale force weather you frequently cannot remember what you were doing.

Earlier in the month, Prudhoe Bay had sat for over a week on the east side of St Mathews Island. They sat in the Island’s lee as gale and storm force winds blew across the Bering Sea. St Mathews Island sits in the middle of the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from nowhere. There is no escape, no lull, no pause, no reprieve.

Anchor watches were 6 on and 6 off. For 6 hours you sat in the pilothouse, by yourself, listening to wind howl and the rain pound on the windows. You watched the barges “blip” on the radar screen, a few hundred yards away. Anchoring was not really anchoring, you let out hundreds of feet of tow cable and made a circle in shallow water. The tow cable lies on the bottom and acts as an anchor for both the barge and tug. Day after day, you sit. Generators running, engines on standby. Mind numbing. There is little conversation or human interaction. Your watch relief shows up, looks around, asks if anything has changed, and then says, “I got it.” Off you go to your bunk, praying that space aliens will abduct you before you have to wake and go back to the bridge.

When winds finally subsided, the tow cable was reeled in and the Prudhoe Bay resumed her slow chug-chug-chug towards Nome. Speed over the ground rarely exceeded 7 knots – slow jog or easy bike ride on land. At 7 knots, you cover 168 miles a day. You don’t want to look at the chart, since it seems like you will never arrive at your destination. Chug-chug-chug. The Prudhoe Bay is a noisy tug. There is no escape from the weather or machinery.

He finally tells the skipper that he has requested to get off when they arrive in Nome, since he knows Janice from the home office will, hopefully, soon notify the skipper that a relief is on the way.

“Why do you want to get off?” asks the skipper, more concerned about whether the request has something to do with him than anything else.

“I just can’t do this anymore,” he replies. There is no attempt to make an excuse, or invoke some lame excuse, or blame anyone. “I just can’t do this,” he says again. “It’s just too much.”

“Yeah, I get that, this isn’t for everyone,” says the skipper. “It’s a real b i t c h, in fact, it really sucks. I am thinking of retiring myself. No-one wants to do this run.”

He feels a relief having told the skipper, and prays his relief is on the dock in Nome when they arrive. A week later, Prudhoe Bay and her 400-foot barge pull into Nome and moor along the harbor’s seawall. He looks out and sees his relief standing there, with his sea bag, ready to board. They shake hands, exchange words and advice, and then he walks up the muddy wet pier with his bag over his shoulder. He does not look back, and his pace increases the further he gets from the tug.

Posted by: AGelbert

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have highlighted a major cause of death in the United States that doesn’t show up on death certificates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t include this cause of death in its annual list of how people die in this country. Shockingly, the researchers who conducted the 2016 study found that fatal medical errors are so prevalent that they should rank as the third-leading cause of death in the United States 👀😲, behind only heart disease and cancer. The Johns Hopkins physicians are advocating for updated criteria for classifying deaths on death certificates, and a change in how the CDC compiles its statistics.

What you don't know can kill you:

While analyzing death rate data collected between 2000 and 2008, the researchers calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error -- equal to 9.5 percent of all U.S. deaths.

The CDC's annual mortality statistics count only the "underlying cause of death," defined as the condition that led the person to seek treatment.

Potentially fatal medical mistakes range from surgical complications that go unrecognized to mix-ups with the doses or types of medications that patients receive in hospitals.

Posted by: AGelbert

Posted by: AGelbert

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are various scans I made of beautiful autumn leaves 🍁 🍂 🍃 that fell in my yard. Feel free to copy them and pass them on. 💐 I made them and I will NOT copyright them. I approve any free dissemination of these scans. May God Bless you and may you ENJOY the season!

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Posted by: AGelbert

Last month, The Ear Spring geyser in Yellowstone National Park erupted, causing the biggest blow in over 60 years … but what came out of the geyser, apart from steam and hot water, is shocking. On September 15, 2018, the small geyser, which up until then had been dormant for decades, essentially rained garbage. Ear Spring emptied itself of all the trash that had been thrown into it throughout the period of its dormancy (about 90 years?!) by senseless tourists visiting Yellowstone – some of the pieces of litter collected date back as far as to the 1930s, TreeHugger reports.

Posted by: AGelbert

Agelbert NOTE: If you happen to believe the LIES, deliberately and repeatedly told by the U.S. mainstream media (and bigoted people on social media), about those "lazy" Latinos/Mexicans, here's some factual data which flips on its head all the DEMONIZATION PROPAGANDA TARGETED at HISPANIC PEOPLE IN GENERAL, AND HISPANIC WORKERS IN PARTICULAR, routinely spewed by Fox News (and most other U.S. media outlets), in true Orwellian mindfork, in the USA.

Mexican Flag

In Which Country Do People Work the Longest Hours?

Mexico might have a reputation for sunny beaches and siestas, but don't let that fool you: When it comes to work, Mexicans are all business. According to statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average Mexican employee works more than 2,255 hours per year, or a little over 43 hours per week, which is the most of any OECD nation.

Not far behind is Costa Rica, where workers put in an average of 42.5 hours per week.

On the other end of the scale is Germany, where the average worker toils for only 26 hours per week. By comparison, British workers put in an average of 32.2 hours per week, and Americans clock in at 34.3 hours per week, on average.

All work and some play:

֍ Walmart is the largest private employer in the world, with approximately 2.3 million workers.

Posted by: AGelbert

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday released its preliminary investigation into the sinking of the Stretch Duck 7 on July 19, 2018 in Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri with the loss of seventeen lives. The preliminary report comes shortly after the release of the NTSB’s initial review of video recordings recovered from the boat, revealing a preliminary timeline of events leading up to the sinking.

Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that it was convening a Marine Accident Board to investigate the accident. The NTSB, however, will lead the marine casualty investigation effort with the Coast Guard joining as an equal partner, in accordance with Joint Federal Regulations. Additional agencies participating in the NTSB’s investigation are the Missouri State Police Highway Patrol, Ride the Ducks, Branson and the National Weather Service.

The NTSB’s Preliminary Report (DCA18MM028) is posted in full below. As a note, the information in this preliminary report is subject to change and may contain errors. It will be supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation.

NTSB Preliminary Report: On Thursday, July 19, 2018, about 7:05 p.m. central daylight time, the amphibious passenger vessel Stretch Duck 7 owned and operated by Ride the Ducks Branson sank in Table Rock Lake, near Branson, Missouri. Local area forecasts for the time of the accident included thunderstorm warnings and data indicated winds of over 70 mph were encountered by a nearby vessel. The Stretch Duck 7 was carrying 31 persons: 29 passengers and two crewmembers. The vessel sank in approximately 15 feet of water and came to rest on the lake floor at a depth of 70 feet. Seventeen persons died, including one crewmember.

Local first responders located the victims and transported the survivors to local hospitals. Table Rock Lake is a navigable waterway and the Stretch Duck 7 was a Coast Guard-inspected passenger vessel. The United States Coast Guard declared the accident a major marine casualty, and the NTSB is the lead federal investigative agency.

On Friday, July 20, the day after the accident, the NTSB launched a full team to Branson. The Coast Guard, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the National Weather Service, and Ride the Ducks Branson were named as parties to the investigation. The Stretch Duck 7 was salvaged on Monday, July 23 and transported to a secure facility. Investigators inspected and tested operational systems aboard the vessel.

The Stretch Duck 7 was equipped with a video recording system, which was recovered from the sunken vessel by the highway patrol dive team and sent to the NTSB laboratory. Investigators are attempting to access data on the system’s hard drive. A data (SIM) card for the video recording system was also recovered. The card’s video files were accessed by engineers at the NTSB laboratory and viewed by the investigative team. Other electronic devices such as cell phones and a camera were recovered and shipped to NTSB labs. Weather data from the accident was collected, including wind speeds (anemometer readings) from nearby weather stations. Thirty- three interviews of witnesses, vessel operators, inspectors, and company officials were conducted on scene. The investigative work and interviews will continue, and the NTSB will participate in the upcoming Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.

The Stretch Duck 7 was an amphibious vehicle that took passengers on tourist excursions through Branson on land as well as in the waters of Table Rock Lake. These amphibious vehicles are either military-modified, known as DUKW boats, or purpose-built, commonly referred to as DUCK boats. Both types are operated by different companies around the United States and the world. The NTSB has investigated other amphibious vessel accidents, including the 1999 sinking of the DUKW boat Miss Majestic near Hot Springs, Arkansas; the 2010 collision between a DUKW boat and a tug and barge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the 2015 road collision between a DUKW boat and a motor coach in Seattle, Washington.

After the 1999 sinking of the Miss Majestic, the NTSB identified vehicle maintenance, Coast Guard inspections, reserve buoyancy, and survivability as safety issues, and issued Safety Recommendations to the Coast Guard, states, manufacturers, operators, and service providers.

Posted by: AGelbert

🌬🌊 Quick, Heavy Rolling Led to Loss of Containers from YM Efficiency Off Australia, ATSB Finds

July 25, 2018 by Mike Schuler

Collapsed containers are seen on the deck of the YM Efficiency upon its arrival at the Port of Botany on June 6, 2018. Photo: ATSB

A short period of quick, heavy rolling in gale-force winds result in the loss 81 containers overboard from the Liberian-flagged containership YM Efficiency off the coast of Newcastle, New South Wales back in June, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a preliminary report into the incident.

The rolling was estimated by the ship’s master as having reached angles of up to 30º to port and starboard.

In addition to the 81 containers lost, the rolling also resulted in damage to a further 62 containers and structural damage to the ship’s gangway, superstructure and lashing bridges, according to the ATSB.

The incident occurred just on June 1, 2018, as the Yang Ming-operated containership was sailing between Kaohsiung, Taiwan to Port Botany, NSW, Australia as part of its regular service.

According to the ATSB report, the YM Efficiency was located about 16 NM east-south-east of Newcastle when it experienced a period of quick, heavy rolling for about 60 to 90 seconds at 0034 on 1 June 2018.

The day before the incident, the ship’s main engine was stopped amid the rough weather, leaving the ship drifting. However, the ship’s main engine was re-started for brief periods over the next few hours to maintain some control over the ship’s drift, the ATSB said.

“At about 2330, the ship’s main engine was started with the engine speed set to 35 rpm and the ship’s head was slowly brought around to the south-west to resume the passage to Port Botany,” the ATSB’s preliminary report stated. “At midnight, the third officer handed over the navigation watch to the second officer. By this time, the ship was on a heading of about 210° with a speed of about 4.3 knots. The weather at midnight was recorded as being overcast with west-south-westerly winds at force nine (between 41 and 47 knots) with 6 m seas and 5 m swells.”

The heavy rolling caused the ships main engine to shut down once again and, by about 0036, the rolling had reduced and the ship’s motion had calmed.

“Shortly after the start of the rolling, several engineering alarms sounded and the main engine shut down with the rpm reducing to zero. The second officer reported hearing loud noises on deck and suspected that there had been some cargo damage. He turned on the ship’s deck lights and observed that containers had been damaged and possibly lost overboard from the bays aft of the accommodation,” the ATSB report stated.

YM Efficiency eventually berthed in Port Botany at about 0936 on 6 June.

The ATSB’s investigation into the incident is ongoing and a full report will be released at a later time. The ATSB’s preliminary report included no analysis or findings as a result of the investigation.

Posted by: AGelbert

This video was apparently filmed this week in Nias in Sumatra, Indonedia as a huge swell hit the island. Luckily, according to reports the vessel was unmanned when it broke free and drifted into the break, drawing a crowd that was just waiting for this to happen.

Posted by: AGelbert

Twelve new moons discovered around Jupiter, pointing to a violent past

July 18, 2018 BY ALEXANDRU MICU

SNIPPET:

New research shows that the planet Jupiter is also quite happy to collect consorts. Twelve new moons have been discovered orbiting it, bringing the gas giant’s total collection to an impressive 79 moons — more than any other planet in the Solar System. One of these moons, according to the researchers who made the discovery, is an “oddball” that might help explain how the ochre giant got all of its moons. In a twist of mythological foreshadowing, it likely wasn’t a peaceful process.

I figured you would enjoy it as much as I did. In these dark times, we need to keep our spirits up with any humor available. Here's a picture of me going about my daily business of gathering material for posting.

Posted by: AGelbert

Prank Caller Patched Through To Trump For 3-Minute Conversation On Air Force One

by Tyler Durden

Fri, 06/29/2018 - 15:25

President Trump was prank called yesterday at 30,000 feet on Air Force One after "Stuttering John" Melendez pretended to be New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

Trump starts off the conversation by congratulating "Menendez" on his primary win against Lisa McCormick, telling him he "went through a very tough situation."

The two then discussed immigration - with Trump "Bob, let me just tell you I want to be able to take care of the situation every bit as much as anybody else at the top level. I'd rather do the larger solution rather than the smaller solution."

On the topic of a Supreme Court pick, "Menendez" tried to bait Trump into exchanging political favors for a less conservative pick:

"Bob Menendez": "I promise you, you will have my vote. I will help you if you if you don't go too conservative, you know what I'm saying?"

Trump: Ah... well, we will talk to you about it. We're gonna probably make a decision Bob over the next two weeks. We have some great choices.

Melendez said on his podcast "This is how easy it is to infiltrate the administration."

Meanwhile, the White House is scrambling to figure out how Melendez was so easily transferred from the White House switchboard to Air Force on, reports Axios.

Trump of course isn't the first politician to be trolled in recent memory. Both John McCain and Maxine Waters fell victim to Russian pranksters Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksey Stolyarov, known online as Vovan and Lexus, in 2017. McCain took a call from who he thought was the Ukrainian Prime Minister, while Waters was tricked into talking about Russian hacking and other Kremlin concerns.

Posted by: AGelbert

The 131-meter general cargo ship Thorco Lineage is hard aground on an atoll in French Polynesia after drifting aground during a voyage across the South Pacific on Saturday.

The Philippines-flagged ship was underway from Baltimore, Maryland in the United States to Hobart, Australia when it experienced engine trouble and drifted aground on the northern end of Raroia Atoll, part of the Tuamotus chain.

No pollution has been reported so far, however, reports indicate the vessel is unlikely to float free without salvage assistance.

Reports also say so far a salvor has not yet been appointed.

The M/V Thorco Lineage is operated by Thorco Projects. The ship was built in 2014 and has a deadweight of 16,949 tonnes.

The ship has a crew of 18 people.

A spokesperson for Thorco Projects provided gCaptain with the following statement:

“We can confirm that Thorco Lineage has drifted aground on the northern outline of Raroia Atoll, French Polynesia, as she was experiencing engine problems. We are in close dialogue with the vessel’s owners and technical managers. Investigations are still ongoing.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) will investigate the loss of dozens of shipping containers overboard from the Yang Ming-operated cargo ship YM Efficiency off of New South Wales, Australia last Friday.

The Liberian-flagged YM Efficiency was sailing from Taiwan to Port Botany with 2,252 loaded containers when it encountered rough weather off Port Stephens, News South Wales shortly after midnight on June 1, 2018.

🌊The large swells caused the ship to roll and pitch heavily, leading to the loss of 83 containers overboard and another 30 containers moved or damaged on board, the ATSB said.Video: 83 Containers Lost from Cargo Ship

Debris from the ship has washed up along the shores of New South Wales. As of Tuesday, about 100 contract workers had joined the shore clean-up effort. Officials have also been issuing regular warnings to ensure ships and boaters are aware of the potential hazard from floating debris.

“Continuing bad weather is hampering efforts, but [on Wednesday] the forecast is for the weather and visibility to improve slightly, so divers will be deployed to join the efforts to assess rubbish that may be sitting on the seabed in the vicinity of Jimmys and Hawks Nest,” said Roads and Maritime Services Executive Director of Maritime, Angus Mitchell.

The ATSB said that during its investigation it will obtain information and recordings from the ship, company and pilots, and will interview directly involved parties as appropriate.

A report will be released at the end of the investigation.

As of Tuesday afternoon the YM Efficiency remained at anchor off coast of Sydney as it awaited entry into port.

Yang Ming says there have been no reports of damage to the vessel or marine pollution other than the lost containers.

“Till this moment, everything is under master’s control, and vessel ‘s safety navigation has been well secured,” Yang Ming said in a statement. “She has already arrived out off Sydney port, however, due port closure under adverse weather, she is unable to be berthed now. YM is trying utmost to secure a berth for her a.s.a.p.”

Posted by: AGelbert

Plimsoll International Load Line mark on a ship. Photo by J. Quendag, Shutterstock

In 2017 alone, over ten billion tons of cargo was carried by the world’s fleet of over 50,000 registered ships. Each of those ships is unique – they fly the flag of over 100 different countries, hail from over a 1,000 and employee crew from every nation on earth. No two ships are identical except that, painted at the waterline of each of these ships, is the same simple mark, the International Load Line. Today gCaptain received notice from an American company to Cease and Desist use of this mark.

The International Load Line is more commonly called a Plimsoll Mark in deference to Samuel Plimsoll, a British MP who took up the load line cause in the 1860s. Plimsoll lobbied for a Royal Commission on the seaworthiness ships in 1872, and in 1876 the United Kingdom Merchant Shipping Act made the load line mark compulsory on all British commercial vessels. In 1906, laws were passed requiring foreign ships visiting British ports to be marked with a load line and in 1930 the Load Line Convention mandated its use internationally.

Since 1872 the Plimsoll Mark has become so ubiquitous that this simple mark has inspired books, movie studios, and even popular athletic shoes. It is featured on numerous memorials to lost sailors and is etched in stone to mark Samuel Plimsoll’s grave.

In 2009, despite over a century of use by countless parties, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a trademark for the exclusive use of this mark on items ranging from “magnets, namely, decorative magnets and refrigerator magnets” to “plastic license plates”, to William C. Leewenburg, a Marine Cargo Surveyor in Morehead City, North Carolina.

In a cease and desist letter sent to gCaptain this morning E. Eric Mills, an attorney representing Leewenburg’s company states that Mr. Leewenburg’s company Plimsollgear.com “offers an assortment of products under trademark registrations worldwide, including the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia” and asks that we remove the mark from the shirt, mug and poster gCaptain created to honor the work of Samuel Plimsoll.

While Mills concedes that the version of the Plimsoll mark used by gCaptain is “not identical to the one shown in his client’s registration” he believes it is “similar enough that a purchaser could confuse one version for the other” and “is in violation of his client’s rights under federal and state trademark and unfair competition laws.”

Can a mark as historic and important as the Plimsoll Mark be trademarked? Was a mistake made by the US Patent and Trademark Office? Will shipping companies be asked to pay a fee or remove the mark from the sides of their ships?

gCaptain has contacted a few shipping companies and has found out that Mr. Leewenburg has not yet asked them to remove the mark from the sides of their ships.

Note from gCaptain CEO John Konrad: gCaptain does not believe we have violated any law or trademark by offering our Samuel Plimsoll products. We shall consider removing the products if they do in fact break the law but we also firmly believe that mariners should be able to buy and wear with pride a mark that signifies safety and professionalism in our industry. In the spirit of this belief gCaptain will be donating $10 for each plimsoll shirt we sell to a charity organization for seafarers.

Any mariner who would prefer to purchase these items at cost rather than donate may use coupon code “plimsoll” at checkout for 25% off. -JK

he skipper of an Alaskan salmon seiner is facing felony charges after she allegedly rammed a competitor’s boat in a battle over a school of fish up in Prince William Sound.

The incident took place in August 2016 and left one person seriously injured.

A view of the collision was captured on video by a stern-facing camera mounted on the boat that took the hit, named Temptation.

In the video, the Temptation appears to be vying for position when it was hit by two boats nearly simultaneously, one on the starboard side towards the stern and the port side amidships. One crew member on the deck of the Temptation suffered a head injury when he was hit by falling deck equipment.

After the collision, both sides can be heard arguing with other over who was at fault. Check it out:

The skipper facing the charges is Alaskan-native and former pro skier, Kami Cabana, who was commanding the 58-foot F/V Chugach Pearl, which is the vessel that can be seen colliding with the Temptation from the port side. Making matters even more interesting, Kami is also a member of the Cabana family, a well-known and very successful salmon fishing family up in Alaska.

For good reason, the incident has gained quite a bit of attention among Alaska’s fishing communities.

In addition to felony charges, Cabana also faced a civil lawsuit which was reportedly settled out of court.

Her criminal case has received several continuances, but now it seems like Cabana may get off with merely a slap on the wrist. After a pre-trial hearing last week, Alicia Long, the wife of the Temptation’s skipper, Jason Long, posted this on her Facebook page:

Quote

“Just listened in on Kami Cabana’s pre-trial conference. They expected to have a deal with 120 hours of community service and a 2 hour coast guard course. Another continuance until June 12th. If you have a problem with this. Or the deal they tried to make with the state call Judge Schally in Valdez and Aaron Peterson in Anchorage at the DA office. June will find the Cabanas fishing, is the fleet ok with her getting off so easy?? F u c k i n g bullshit. Ram away guys, hurt whomever you want, there will be no penalty in the eyes of the State.”

It should be noted that Long, who was the skipper of the Temptation at the time, was fined $1,300 after the U.S. Coast Guard found that he failed to avoid crossing in front of the other vessels prior to the collision. The Cordova Times has more on that part of the story:

The Coast Guard found that on Aug. 16, 2016 that Long observed a school of salmon in Hidden Bay and when an opening of about 150 feet occurred between the F/V Chugach Pearl and another vessel, the F/V Silver Steak, he maneuvered the F/V Temptation to pass between the two vessels before the gap closed. The other two vessels were standing still at the time, with the F/V Chugach Pearl off to the port side and the F/V Silver Streak to the starboard side of the F/V Temptation.

According to video introduced into evidence, the F/V Temptation dramatically increased its speed about 12 seconds before the collision with the F/V Chugach Pearl and the F/V Silver Streak, the Coast Guard hearing officer noted.

The fact that the F/V Silver Streak and F/V Chugach Pearl both inappropriately ‘throttled up in a pinching maneuver’ in an effort to block the F/V Temptation from getting into the bay was not disputed and captains of both of those vessels were found culpable in the collision, but those actions did not absolve Long in his responsibility to follow navigation rules that may have prevented the collision, the hearing officer said.

In fact, at no time during the 12 seconds before the collision did the F/V Temptation further increase or decrease its speed to avoid a potential collision, the Coast Guard said. Read more…

Posted by: AGelbert

Denmark’s Largest Space Project, The ASIM Climate Observatory ✨, Has Arrived At The International Space Station

April 4th, 2018 by Jesper Berggreen

The site Ingeniøren reports on the success of getting one of the most anticipated Danish space projects in years off the ground.

The climate observatory ASIM (Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor) is finally on its way to the International Space Station, ISS, after a year’s delay. The SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-14 mission made sure to bring the Dragon spacecraft with ASIM into orbit Monday, and while slowly achieving a higher altitude, the spacecraft finally docked with ISS Wednesday. The process of securing ASIM onto the outside of ISS is expected to be completed in about 10 days.

For the SpaceX crew at Cape Canaveral control center in Florida, this launch was mostly routine, as it is the 14th SpaceX mission to ISS. However, for a delegation of almost 100 European researchers and engineers, including families, from DTU Space and high-tech company Terma, this was anything but routine.

ASIM is mounted at the bottom of the Dragon-space capsule. Image credit: Terma via Ingeniøren

The mission is the culmination of almost 12 years of work, and on board the Dragon capsule is the 330 kg climate observatory ASIM — 1 cubic meter of state-of-the-art high-tech space instrumentation. It was a great relief for the people involved to witness the successful launch.

ASIM has cost 370 million DKK (61 million USD), of which 220 million DKK (36 million USD) are from Danish sources, which makes ASIM the largest Danish space project to date. The ASIM mission is realized through the European Space Agency, ESA. Other major partners include the University of Valencia in Spain, and the University of Bergen in Norway.

Chief consultant at DTU Space and head of the scientific team behind ASIM Torsten Neubert to Ingeniøren:

“This is really exciting, because it is always risky to send something up with a rocket. We hope and expect it to go well, but it’s not something we can take for granted … we have struggled for years to make it all work … Now it’s reality.”

For the next two years, ASIM will study giant lightning 🌩 that stretches vertically through the atmospheric layers ⚡, and examine how they might affect the climate on earth, including global warming.It is believed that giant lightning can act as corridors that displace the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the ozone layer, and thus they must be taken into account in climate models.

ASIM is fitted with two cameras, three light sensors that detect light glow in different wavelengths, and an X-ray detector. Although the primary target is lightning above thunderstorms, ASIM will also observe meteors, water vapor, cloud formations, and more.

The vessel has capacity for 6,800 passengers and 2,000 crew in 2,759 staterooms.

By gross tonnage, the Symphony of the Seas takes the title as the largest cruise ship in the world’, surpassing the 226,900 gt Harmony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s third Oasis ship which was also built at STX France.